As a distraction we jumped on a train last week and went to Barking … mad? No, we’d enjoyed a talk at the Essex Record Office History Group earlier this autumn and placed ‘a must do’ in the diary. The talk was about Eastbury Manor which is situated in the centre of Barking a little…

Sometimes it is necessary to do a spot of maintenance on the dinghy. On the whole this tends to be done during the April to June period in between ensuring that Whimbrel is more or less up to scratch. But due to the possibility that I might not be feeling ‘on top of the world’…

This post is dedicated to John, who after some thought, has booked a PSA blood test – well done John… Having had a spot of inclement weather and being away visiting family for a weekend the level of autumn sailing was beginning to trail away with the season, so, with two days of good forecasts…

Message for Brian Ingram – recontact me: your email contact details aren’t connecting back to you… best wishes, Nick

Do you remember my blog back in the summer about ‘the deadly snake that wants to bite’? If not read… If so, and a man of fifty or over, have you been tested yet? More men are dying of prostate cancer than women of breast cancer, and in the press you’ll not hear a single…

On our way back from Cornwall last week we stopped off for a couple of days at Dorchester … but our arrival was interrupted by a small detour into Topsham. Why? Well, the spritsail barge Vigilant sits by the town’s wharf being rebuilt. The Vigilant, the subject of a lovely little book, ‘Sailorman’ by E.…

While my wife and I were down in Cornwall on holiday – a NO BOATS holiday – I just happened to fall through the gates of the Rhoda Mary Shipyard down stream in Truro. Now, the Rhoda Mary is a vessel I was quite intimate with as a youngster: with my older sibling, I would…

From time to time holidays are taken without Whimbrel being the link-pin of our lives … we went to Cornwall and have now returned, refreshed and ready for autumn … winter and the freshness of the 2019 spring… Now down in Cornwall, on a ‘no-boats’ holiday, it is exceedingly difficult not to stumble upon a…

The Queenborough Harbour Trust began putting on a traditional boat festival some seasons ago. Last year (2017) there was on the whole a very successful event, albeit that a ‘raft’ of yachts did not pitch up. My understanding was that some 2, 500 people visited over the weekend. enjoying  host of yachts, the spritsail barge…

Many years ago the then owner of a Finesse 27, Bonito, contacted and asked for some advice about selling his vessel … I can’t remember what I said, but the but appeared on the east coast from its old home down near Southampton. I came across her in a yard in Woodbridge and had a…

Queenborough Harbour Trust is holding its traditional boat festival next weekend – Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th September – with many of the craft congregating on the Friday. Whimbrel is due to be there and with current weather predictions, will be. Two pictures from a past event as vessels began to arrive. Many are berthed…

Between coming home from our summer cruising and the beginning of September, I took my oldest brother (‘home’ from Canada for a few weeks) and my sister away for a flying trip up to Pin Mill and back – but that’s another story. So, after we had seen ‘big bro’ off to the airport, my…

Some time back in July we arrived home from sailing and The Mate wheeled the dinghy trolley down the hard as I drew up in the tender. We duly floated and pulled the tender onto its trolley and set off, laughing about something or other, up the slipway. We hadn’t gone far when all of…

This summer I had promised my sister and two friends a ‘Rochester to Richmond’ style trip looking at the Medway and Thames. Of course, we wouldn’t actually have been sailing to Richmond! But, my life went into a state of flux ending with a bit of a shock. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer –…

This blog is dedicated to Jon from Sidney, British Columbia, Canada, for an act of kindness … Jon sails the waters ‘over there’ but they tend to be a little rockier around the shores… We spent a few days in Faversham at the Iron Wharf yard enjoying the town and its surrounds. We certainly didn’t…

A boating acquaintance of mine has decided to hang up his sailing boots and walk a landward path now… The chaps boat, Frith, a rather tasty Finesse 24 has bee kept at Burnham Marina for a number of years. She is remarkably well kept, although she has been in regular use, she hasn’t been sailed…

It has been a topsy-turvy year to date. It began full of hopes and dreams of a long and fruitful continuing enjoyment of all the good things in life, far into the future. We began with a sparkling early morning sail in January, together. A happy-go-lucky me taken by The Mate … whilst cooking up…

Nearly two years ago I found I needed a replacement loo seat for the RM69 toilet fitted to Whimbrel. I was offered a wood seat which I purchased. This was fitted in the spring of 2017. The RM range of marine toilets were originally manufactured by a Dutch company, however, this folded a little while…

I have had a couple of Francis B. Cooke’s books for some while, but found his writing somewhat dry and belittling, condescending even, especially in the way he ‘treated’ women… Perchance, for part of her Ruby Wedding Anniversary present to me, my good mate and dear wife presented me with: Small Yacht Cruising, Weekend Yachting…

The annual Finesse Rally which was started by a local group of like-minded souls with me as their ‘appointed’ head has, I am pleased to say, continued to thrive. Last year’s event at Brightlingsea was somewhat marred by inclement weather preceding and during the Saturday of the event. It being, in the main, rather blowy!…